Butter Garlic Shrimp with Fried Rice

One thing I hate is wasted food. I hate it when fruits or vegetables go bad before I eat them. To remedy this, I have started adding whatever leftover veggies I have to whatever I am cooking for dinner. This was last night's dinner. I threw in the fried rice any leftover veggies we had in the fridge as well as the old rice from another meal. I was pleasantly surprised at how yummy it ended up being.

Fried Rice

1 T peanut oil
1 T sesame oil
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 shallot, chopped
handful of sugar snap peas
1/2 lb frozen mixed veggies
1-2 cups old rice
1 egg
soy sauce to taste
dash of oyster sauce

Heat up the oils in a large skillet or wok. Add the carrots, shallots, peas, and mixed veggies and saute until tender. Add rice and saute until rice starts to get crispy. Crack the egg into the mixture and stir it around until cooked and blended. Add soy sauce and oyster sauce and heat through.

*Any oil will work for this if you are allergic to nuts or seeds of any kind. I've used Canola oil with good results. Also, if you don't happen to have any oyster sauce lying around I'm pretty sure it can be omitted. It does add a nice richness to the rice though.

Butter Garlic Shrimp

3 cloves minced garlic
1/4 c butter
1 lb shrimp, peeled and de-veined

Saute shrimp in garlic and butter until they're that nice pink color.

*I like to stock up on shrimp when they have the "buy one, get one free" sale of the bags of frozen shrimp. I always get uncooked because I like the texture of freshly cooked shrimp. They tend to be a little rubbery when you buy them already cooked.

Not too shabby for a meal that takes maybe 20 minutes to make and uses up all your old veggies!